Jim Cummings

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Cummings relocated to New Orleans, where he worked on the assembly of Mardi Gras floats. He later moved to Anaheim, California, where he worked "odd jobs" until the early 1980s. Cummings's first opportunity as a voice actor came in 1983, when the failing health of longtime Winnie the Pooh voice actor Sterling Holloway prompted an open call for Holloway's replacement for the animated feature, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore. While Hal Smith (best known as Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show) took over for that particular project, Cummings would substitute for Holloway in the subsequent TV show The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

At Disney, Cummings not only replaced the ailing Holloway as the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh, but also took over as the voice of Tigger when Paul Winchell retired. Then, when Jeremy Irons experienced problems with his vocal cords during production of The Lion King, Cummings was hired to imitate Irons's voice for the last few lines of the song "Be Prepared". Cummings duplicated the voice of Russell Means for the songs in Pocahontas, and he also duplicated the voice of Christopher Lloyd for the song, "In the Dark of the Night" in Anastasia. When Cummings provided a rendition of Louis Prima's voice for King Louie in TaleSpin, this provoked a controversy with Prima's widow.

Cummings was the only original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles voice actor to return for the 2007 movie. His first three TMNT appearances were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. The 2007 movie was Cummings's sixth computer-animated movie appearance. His first five computer-animated movie appearances included Antz, The Nuttiest Nutcracker, Shrek, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas; and his latest animated movie appearances are Bee Movie and the upcoming The Princess and the Frog and BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn.

In the course of two decades, Cummings's career as a voice actor has taken him from bit parts to leading roles in major series at various studios, including Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Dreamworks, and 20th Century Fox studios. His most memorable roles, however, have been at Walt Disney Studios.[dubious – discuss] There, he provided voices for a variety of television series, including leading roles in Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, (taking over the character of Zummi Gummi after Paul Winchell's departure from the role), DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Gargoyles, and House of Mouse, and movies such as Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas and the Disney special edition of Alice in Wonderland (as the Cheshire Cat singing "I'm Odd"). Cummings also voiced the non-speaking roles of Ed the laughing hyena in 1994's The Lion King and Duncan the horse for one episode of The Simpsons.

Other notable roles include "Mr. Bumpy" in the Claymation show Bump in the Night, Dr. Robotnik on Sonic The Hedgehog, Mayor Manx on SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, Psy-Crow and Bob the Killer Goldfish on Earthworm Jim and Taz Tazmanian Devil on Taz-Mania and a number of other projects. In addition to Taz and Pooh, Cummings has over the years become the official voice for a number of legendary cartoon characters, including Tigger, Pete, Humphrey the Bear, Dick Dastardly, the Slag Brothers, Big Gruesome, Private Meekly, Clyde, and Morocco Mole . He also did some voices on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles such as Leatherhead the mutant alligator and some additional characters. He also did the voice of Don Karnage in Disney's TaleSpin. Cummings has also provided voices for video games, television commercials, and movie trailers, and is the current official announcer for Kids' WB!, as well as the official spokesperson for the current Cheez-It commercials. He returned to his role as Taz on Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas.

Cummings has done the voice of Minsc of Baldur's Gate/Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Drizzt Do'Urden in the first Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance game. He is also prominently displayed in the credits of Kingdom Hearts as Pooh, Tigger, and Pete. Cummings provided the voices for "Bad Mr. Frosty", "Hougan", and "Sumo Santa" in Clay Fighter 63 1/3. He also voices "Sarge" and the other soldiers in the Army Men games. In Ys I & II for the Turbografx -16 CD system, he is credited as voicing "Dalles", and he provided voices for minor characters in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. He played several characters in the little-known "Toonstruck."

In addition, Cummings narrates the current Epcot fireworks show at Walt Disney World, IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.

Cummings has a cameo in Comic Book: The Movie as an inebriated party-goer.

Cummings has made some vocal performances using his voice at normal pitch for some younger looking characters like Witterquick from Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light and Buddy Boar from Taz-Mania. Cummings also voices the veteran Glatorian Ackar in the film Bionicle: The Legend Reborn.